Video Released Of Athlete Kicked Off Plane For Sagging Pants

SAN FRANCISCO — A University of New Mexico football player who was arrested after wearing saggy pants on a plane at San Francisco airport insists in a video showing part of his exchange with authorities on the aircraft that his pants were up and he had done nothing wrong.

The San Francisco Chronicle obtained the video and a link to it was on the newspaper’s website Saturday.

“My pants are up sir,” a seated Deshon Marman tells the captain, who along with someone who appears to be a San Francisco police officer, is standing near his seat. “I’m not doing anything. I paid my fees, and I’m ready to go.”

The Chronicle said it obtained the three-minute video from a passenger who was sitting near Marman during Wednesday’s incident and did not wish to be identified.

What the video does not show is Marman’s repeated refusal earlier to follow a boarding agent’s advice and pull up his pants, Elise Eberwein, a spokeswoman for US Airways, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

“When he was asked by our employee at the Jetway to please pull them up, that employee was told to pull them up for him,” she said. “And that exchange continued to the door of the plane.”

Marman’s pants were so low they were “exposing areas that most people would not want to see” and violating the airline’s expectation that customers won’t dress offensively, Eberwein said.

Attempts by the AP to reach Marman were not successful. A call to his attorney’s office Saturday afternoon was not returned, and calls to listings for people with his mother’s name in San Francisco were not returned or went unanswered.

News reports have identified his attorney as Joe O’Sullivan and his mother as Donna Doyle.

Marman said in an interview with KGO-TV this week that his pants were slightly below his waist, and he was unable to lift them up because he had bags in his hands.

O’Sullivan told the Chronicle that nothing was visible once his client sat down.

“The issue should have been over,” he said.

Marman was arrested on suspicion of trespassing, battery of a police officer and obstruction after refusing to leave the plane on the captain’s orders, according to police. Police have also said he injured an officer while being taken into custody.

“He’s refusing to get off,” Eberwein said. “The captain’s thinking, `What if he refuses something else in the air?'”

Marman was released on bail Thursday. Prosecutors have until July 18 to file any charges against him.